Derry City FC: Who’s the Cuban Candystripe?

Kevin Mullan

Derry City supporters are like sand, they turn up everywhere, from the Brandywell to the Bahia de la Habana!

A Candystripes supporter made an unlikely cameo in a news report about Cuban rap music, filed by Thom Walker and aired on Channel 4 News (see picture) on Monday (May 11).

The superfan was wearing a jersey from 1994/95, a bittersweet season, when Derry City beat Shelbourne in the FAI Cup final and were painfully gazumped by Dundalk for the league title on the last day of the season after drawing away to Athlone Town.

Is the fan pictured a Brandywell regular on holiday in Havana? Or is he a native Cuban Candystripe?

Perhaps he was on his way to O’Reilly’s bar on Calle O’Reilly in Old Havana, named after Dubliner Alexander O’Reilly whose grandfather John, one of King James’ colonels, laid Siege to Derry in 1689.